


How to Be

by azure_horizon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-08
Updated: 2012-09-08
Packaged: 2017-11-13 19:46:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/507074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azure_horizon/pseuds/azure_horizon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You see a lot, living at The Burrow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Ginny Weasley wants to hate Hermione Granger. She really does and over the last few months, she's gotten quite good at it. But as she steps out onto the back porch at The Burrow and sees them, she can't find it in her to try any more.

In the deep, quickly descending dusk she watches their black silhouettes – though she should say silhouette since they are almost one – against the inky sky and she sighs quietly up to the horizon. There's an arm around the other but she's not sure who is hugging who in the burrowing darkness but she doesn't think it really matters.

In the house at their impromptu gathering of the Order, she'd noticed their missing presence instantly. Though not uncommon, it was rare when they were outwith the boundaries of Hogwarts. There, they were a trio. Outside of there, it was Ron and Harry, then Hermione. Ron had been the addition this evening – had been for the last couple of days, really – and Harry and Hermione had been the duo. It had started upon Harry's arrival, Hermione being the first to greet him and the last to leave his side and it had made Ginny wonder if something had happened to him that she didn't know about because Hermione certainly wasn't a hoverer. At dinner, they'd sat together despite Ron and Ginny's attempts to get their respective partners to their side of the table. It seemed unconscious on Harry and Hermione's part and she wonders if that makes it better or worse.

The second day, Ron had told her he had found Harry and Hermione already awake sharing a single cup of coffee in the kitchen and wondered if he should be worried. Ginny had brushed it off but then at lunch, when Harry hadn't eaten and Hermione had picked at her food, Ginny had wondered at the conversation between them:

"You should eat," said Harry as he eyed her almost full plate.

Hermione turned to him, meeting his eyes for a moment before motioning to his plate, too. "So should you."

It wasn't entirely out of place but when Harry had made to move from the table a few minutes later, Hermione had gripped his wrist before he could push away and Harry had hesitated a moment before sitting back down and picking at the sandwich on the plate in front of him.

Now, in the back garden, she can hear the quiet murmurings of whispered conversation and she knows that as soon as she makes her presence known the conversation will cease. And she hates that knowledge; that there is something Harry won't share with her. That there's a part of him that only Hermione knows.

A bitter thought passes her mind and she can't seem to shift it quickly enough.

Because Hermione doesn't have enough of Harry as it is.

Moments pass and the thought lingers and she's slow to brush it aside because she knows it to be true. After everything the two have been through together, it's no wonder she knows him more than Ginny. But Ginny doesn't have to like it.

"Hermione..." Harry says, his voice low and thick and Ginny recognises the well of emotion in the voice. She wishes it was her name he spoke in that way. The arm around the waist moves and she realises it's Harry's; she feels a pang at that.

Ginny steps forward then, not sure what it is she is going to say. When she steps around them, they turn to her quickly, their heads snapping away from the others vicinity but Ginny daren't think on that. She watches as Hermione tries to draw her hand from Harry's grip – their fingers interlaced on his lap – but Harry doesn't relent. Ginny can't hate Hermione for that.

"I just..." She begins but trails off and looks around the grounds of The Burrow quickly before she looks back to them. "I just came to see where you were."

Harry nods but doesn't say anything and it's more awkward than she remembers it being between the three for a long time. Hermione looks uncomfortable as she refuses to meet Ginny's gaze and she wonders once again what it is she has interrupted but doesn't dwell on it. Doesn't think she could, even if she wanted to.

"We should go in," Hermione says and Harry nods though it takes him a few long seconds before he stands, his hand still connected with hers. He smiles to Hermione in a way that Ginny knows he has never smiled at her and she feels a pang in her chest but pushes it away. She's seen all of this before. She's acclimatised.

Or so she likes to tell herself.

Hermione smiles and nods her answer to an unasked question and Ginny doesn't fight to push it away this time. She simply watches the exchange, smiling tightly when Hermione does the same to her. She watches Hermione leave, sliding quietly back into the house and Harry steps up to Ginny, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

She leans into him, because it's expected and she can't help but wonder if this intimacy is forced. She wonders what they look like to others; if she's the only one to compare Harry and Hermione to Harry and Ginny.

She wonders what she and Harry look like to someone on the outside looking in, like she has been with Harry and Hermione.

She wants to hate Hermione Granger for making her question Harry.

But because she's there for Harry when Ginny can't be, she doesn't.


	2. Chapter 2

Molly Weasley likes to think her children, despite everything, are happy. They may have lost a brother, friends (she thinks of Remus and Tonks and Dumbeldore and feels tears well up in her eyes) but they won the war and they all stayed together. Ron, she knows, went through a bad spell while they (just children!) went off in search of the horcruxes – jealousy, rage, embitterment – and she's glad he managed to pull through it. Ginny, understandably, had been devastated when Harry had called them off (for her safety, of course) and she was glad Harry had at least come back for her daughter.

But Molly Weasley also wonders how her children can turn a blind eye to the glaringly obvious, given Ron's jealousy and Ginny's need for Harry's attention. She'd never question them – good grief, she wouldn't dare – but she still questions it.

It had been subtle, to begin with – she supposes it still is, to be honest, she think she's just more attuned to it now. The rebuilt Burrow had become the home for Harry and Hermione too after the war. She's not sure any of them are quite ready to go it alone yet and she's glad to open her house up for them, her surrogate family.

It had been that first morning, when she'd come down the stair to start breakfast that she'd noticed it.

She stopped shy of the doorway just outside the kitchen and listened to the gentle rustlings that told her someone else was awake. Her first instinct was Harry, awoken from another nightmare, and when she stepped into the passageway, she found she wasn't mistaken. Though he wasn't alone. Standing beside him, leaning against the sink was Hermione. They each held a section of that dastardly newspaper the Daily Prophet. She smiled at the sight and went to step into the kitchen but stopped once more, still unseen in the doorway.

Hermione, without looking up from her newspaper, lifted her arm from the edge of the sink and held her hand open, waiting. Harry, without looking up, passed her his cup and Hermione took a sip from it then passed it back.

"You shouldn't be drinking coffee," Hermione said quietly, and Molly got the impression it wasn't the first time the young woman had said this to Harry.

"And neither should you but this early in the morning isn't going to have any effect on how well I sleep tonight."

Hermione's lips twitched up into a small smile.

"I guess not."

They were silent for a moment and Molly was struck by just how intimate the moment seemed. She felt like she was intruding, even from her space outside the room and she couldn't help but watch as they continued with the so glaringly normal routine of reading the newspaper and sharing a cup of coffee.

She hadn't thought more of it and hadn't spoken a word to them about it as she entered the kitchen some ten minutes later after banging about loudly on the steps. When she had walked in, they'd simply looked up at her simultaneously and smiled, asking if she wanted a hand with breakfast. She hadn't known what she had expected, and to this day she still doesn't know what she expected them to do – jump apart like guilty teenagers? Hogwash, they weren't doing anything wrong.

The next time she noticed it, a few days later, they had all been out the back garden playing a quick game of Quidditch – just for fun. Hermione had stayed grounded with Molly and helped her pick out the weeds and chase away errant garden gnomes while the others flew about overhead. They had chatted amiably, skirting over topics like Fred and Remus and Hogwarts. The mood was too light to tarnish with such thoughts.

When the others had come down – three hours for a fun game of Quidditch in which Harry purposely didn't catch the Snitch many times – they had retreated to shower and change from their sweaty clothes. Hermione had wanted to help with the late lunch preparations but Molly had waved her off, assuring her she could manage on her own.

When Molly had flitted from the kitchen to call the others in food, she'd paused, once again at the sight of Harry and Hermione.

Harry was lounging on the couch, his legs up and feet dangling over the back while Hermione leaned against the arm at the other side, one foot planted on the floor while the other was in Harry's lap. Molly looked up and across the room Ginny and Ron, who seemed to be non-plussed by the seating arrangement. So Molly had shrugged and moved into the room.

"At least you could have showered," Harry said lightly to Hermione as Molly drew nearer and Molly grinned as she practically heard the smile in Harry's voice. "You smell like you did in Dean."

Molly chuckled as Hermione dug her heel into Harry's hip, glaring at him.

"Unlike some," she said with a pointed glare at Harry, "I took care to make sure I didn't smell, in Dean or elsewhere."

Harry chuckled again and Molly watched as his hand came to rest on her ankle, his thumb rubbing aimlessly against her shin.

"I didn't say you smelled bad."

"But that's what you were implying."

Harry ran his fingers over the top of Hermione's foot and wrapped his hand around her toes and squeezed.

"I've never implied you smell bad, simply that you smell."

Molly couldn't move for a moment as she watched the interaction, startled at the contact between the two. Her eyes flickered to Ginny and Ron again but they were busy comparing notes on the new CleanSweep versus the old one. She didn't believe they didn't notice.

"Lunch is ready," Molly said before Hermione could retort and all four of the young adults looked up to her and grinned. "If you want to have anything, Hermione, I suggest you get there before these three do."

Hermione laughed and swung herself up from her position on the couch, meeting Ron at the edge of the sofa. She hooked her fingers through his belt loop and leaned into his side even as she reached down and pushed Harry's shoulder as he tried to sit up.

"Witch..." Molly heard Harry murmur to Hermione as he wrapped his arm around Ginny's shoulder.

In the couple of months since they have all been living with her, Molly has grown accustomed to these scenes. So when they are sitting in the living room of an evening, with Ginny pestering Harry to go rest because he seems to be nodding off every few minutes, it is no surprise when Hermione hops back from the bathroom and threads her fingers through Harry's hair as she passes. Molly watches as Harry leans into the touch a moment before leaning back against the couch.

"You should get some sleep, Harry," Hermione says as she flops down on the floor in front on Ron, leaning her head on his knee.

Harry makes a noncommittal sound but Molly knows he is getting ready to put his body into motion. He grumbles a few more times then blinks his eyes open and stares blearily around the room.

"Okay," he says and turns to Ginny, his eyes skimming over Molly and Arthur briefly before he presses a kiss to her lips and stands. "I'll see you all in the morning."

As he passes Hermione, his hand brushes her shoulder and the girl follows his touch for a moment before settling in against Ron.

Molly knows her children aren't blind, nor are they stupid. And she thinks she is now beginning to understand: something happened in Godric's Hollow. She's not sure what – she's not sure any of them are really sure – but whatever it is it has changed Harry and Hermione's relationship. They're not just friends... but they aren't anything else, either. She's watched this pull of gravity between them, the way they orbit one another for long enough to understand that at least.

And if her children can accept it, then so can she.

She sighs and leans back in the chair, sharing a smile with Arthur.

She knows that in the morning, she'll come down the stairs and Harry and Hermione will already be there, sharing a cup of coffee over a newspaper. She knows that if Harry has a nightmare that it's Hermione who'll pick him back up. She knows that when Hermione misses her parents, Harry will take her away from the Burrow and back to a life that Ron will never understand – just for a few hours.

Just as she knows that, at the end of the day, it's her children the two go back to.


End file.
